Basketball Star
UVA would win right away with Burge averaging 8.3 points and 6.3 rebounds a game her freshman year and the pair playing a big part in leading the team to the school's first three, and to date only, Atlantic Coast Conference championships (in 1990, 1992 and 1993) and Women's NCAA Final Four appearances (1990–1992). Following the school year in 1989 and 1990, Burge was asked to play for USA Basketball U18 and U19 basketball teams and won a gold medal at the 1990 US Olympic Festival. Things did not always go smoothly for the Burges in their freshman and sophomore seasons as the pair were frequently in foul trouble, rarely played at the same time on the court (due to their foul situation), fought with teamamates and each other, and were considered by their teammates to be both "soft" and prone to mistakes and turnovers.
However during their time with UVA, the pair averaged 24 points and seven rebounds per game and teamed with NCAA All-Americans Dawn Staley and Tammi Reiss to lead the Cavaliers to three consecutive Final Fours and a 1991 overtime loss to Tennessee in the championship game. In all three trips to the Final Four, the Cavaliers lost to the eventual NCAA Champion (losing to Stanford in 1990 and 1992). Virginia's 1992 campaign ended with a school-record 32 wins (32-2, 15-1 in the ACC) and the team was ranked #1 in the Associated Press Poll and second in the USA Today Coaches Poll at the end of the regular season. Prior to her senior year in 1993, Burge was among only 54 UVA in-coming seniors to be given the privilege of living in one of the residences in The Lawn, a portion of the campus that makes up much of the original buildings constructed on campus in 1817-19. Also in 1993, Virginia lost in the East Region Championship to NCAA runner-up Ohio State. The Lady Cavs lost all four tournament games by a total of only 15 points with the biggest score differential being their 9 point loss to Stanford in 1990.
While at UVA, Burge was a three-year member of the ACC Academic Honor Roll (1991–1993). As of May 2011, Burge is tied for second in career games played with 134, sixth in rebounds with 853 boards, sixth in blocked shots with 108 blocks, eleventh in career double-double's with 14, and nineteenth in career scoring with 1,191 points.
After graduating with a bachelors degree with a dual major in Retorics and Communications Studies and Spanish, Burge played professionally for six years overseas with AS Montferrand in France (1993–94), GYSEV-Sopron in Hungary (1994–95), Cariparma in Italy (1995–96), and finally Panathinaikos in Athens, Greece (1996–1997).
Following her season in Greece, Burge accepted an offer to play in the newly-formed Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) for the Los Angeles Sparks alongside four-time Olympic gold medal winner Lisa Leslie. Although the team lead the league in scoring (with 74 points per game) and were fourth (out of eight teams) in defensive rating, the Sparks finished a disappointing 14-14 and out of the playoff picture. On January 27, 1998, Burge was taken by the Washington Mystics as their first selection and second selection overall in the expansion draft that formed the nucleus of both the Mystics and the Detroit Shock. Burge was featured as one of the key Mystics players prior to the start of the season and included in team marketing. During the season, Burge would start half the team's 30 games, finish second on the team in both field goal and three point percentages and fourth in minutes, points, rebounds, and blocked shots, but it wouldn't be enough as the team would finish a league-worst 3-27 despite the presence of Olympian Nikki McCray. Her stay with the Mystics was short as well, as Burge was released on June 9, 1999 by the team following her injury-plagued 1998 season (in which she struggled with a lower back injury and a broken finger) and after drafting all-world forward Chamique Holdsclaw.
Among the highlights of her WNBA career was a game-high 11 rebounds and nine points against the Phoenix Mercury in 1997, a 14 point, 9 rebound effort in a 75-68 victory over the Utah Starzz the same year, and a career-high 19 points against the Mercury in August 1998. Upon retirement, one of Burge's biggest professional disappointments was that she was never able to either play with or against Heather.
Read more about this topic: Heidi Burge
Famous quotes containing the words basketball and/or star:
“Perhaps basketball and poetry have just a few things in common, but the most important is the possibility of transcendence. The opposite is labor. In writing, every writer knows when he or she is laboring to achieve an effect. You want to get from here to there, but find yourself willing it, forcing it. The equivalent in basketball is aiming your shot, a kind of strained and usually ineffective purposefulness. What you want is to be in some kind of flow, each next moment a discovery.”
—Stephen Dunn (b. 1939)
“One thing about being successful is that I stopped being afraid of dying. Once you’re a star you’re dead already. You’re embalmed.”
—Dustin Hoffman (b. 1937)